Luft Gets Chance To Show Another Side

Another Side Of Luft Will Show As `Guys And Dolls' Hits The Road

September 15, 1992|By FRANK RIZZO; Courant Staff Writer

NEW YORK — Lorna Luft is used to ghosts.

When she starred in the revival recording of George and Ira Gershwin's "Girl Crazy" last year, there were the ghosts of Ethel Merman, who orginated the role Luft was playing, and of Luft's mother, Judy Garland, who played the part on film.

Now the singer-actress is playing Miss Adelaide, the lovestruck chorine, in the acclaimed revival of the musical "Guys and Dolls," which opens its national tour tonight at the Bushnell Memorial in Hartford. (The production of the Frank Loesser musical also plays the Shubert Performing Arts Center in New Haven for two weeks in December.) Vivian Blaine created the role on Broadway and in the 1955 film. Faith Prince won a best-actress Tony in the revival.

"You can't think about who preceded you in the part," says Luft during a break in rehearsals in Manhattan. "If I had to think about Ethel Merman and my mother, all these people who did all that stuff, I'd be in the rubber room."

Dressed in gray sweats and without makeup, a vivacious Luft is taking a break for lunch, ordering tomato soup and cold poached dijon chicken. "Oh, look at the quesadillas over there. No, no, no, no, no. I've got to be good. I have to wear corsets on top of corsets for this show."

Luft says she's thrilled at being given the opportunity for the part because it's a great show, it's a great role, and it's a chance to show that she's not just a singer but also a comedian.

"None of my friends who know me are going to be surprised," she says. "They know that I'm out of my mind. But Joe Public, who may have only seen me on [television's] `Trapper John, M.D.' or `Murder, She Wrote' or on `The Tonight Show' as a singer, will hopefully be pleasantly surprised."

Although humor comes naturally to the 39-year-old Luft, it was only in the past eight years that she felt she could be herself on stage in concert.

She recently completed a London engagement of "Hollywood &

Broadway," a musical tribute to the golden era of stage and screen.

"I grew up in a family that had a sense of humor and was filled with creative types and all of that," she says. "But it took me forever to trust myself alone on stage. It's very easy for someone to say, `Just be yourself.' You be yourself with 3,000 people looking at you. The easiest thing is to do what I'm doing now: hide behind a character."

But what a character.

The role earned Prince the best-actress Tony this season on Broadway; the show was awarded four Tonys in all, including one for best revival).

Luft was a contender last year for the Broadway revival.

"And they went with Faith, who is wonderful. And I thought, `Well, that was sort of nice.' And I never really thought about it again. And then they called me again. And that was it. I'm glad they remembered me."

But being in a hit revival of a hit show is a breeze, right?

"We've seen this done before, and we've seen how it doesn't always work," Luft says. "If you don't have the right director, this show can really not work. It all goes back to having a [director like] Jerry Zaks who gets it. Do you know why? Because he loves this thing. He loves this show."

Luft is lush in her praise of the Zaks touch.

"He's an amazing man because he was an actor and he came from the other side. He is so nice and kind to actors at auditions. And then to work with him. He's knows exactly what he wants, so you are never confused. You never walk away going, `What does that guy want?' You know exactly what he wants. It's real precise. But he also lets you discover the role for yourself.

Luft says there is a certain larger-than-life style to "Guys and Dolls," "but the actors mustn't ever comment on the style. So we have these unbelievable cartoon sets [by Tony Walton] and costumes [by William Ivey Long] and colors, and you have to make all of these people real.

"The biggest mistake I've seen people make with Adelaide is that they turn her into a dumb Brooklyn secretary. She ain't dumb. This girl has read. She's educated. She likes to read. She thinks of herself as someone who really wants to find out things. And she's got real good street smarts about her. The only thing is that she's been driven insane by this man for 14 years that she loves. When you love someone, you can be Einstein and everyone will say, `Get rid of that guy.' And you'll go, `No. Why?' "